Due to their size and construction, prior art heavy weight drill collars are unbalanced to some degree and tend to introduce variations. Moreover, even if they were perfectly balanced, the heavy weight drill collars have a buckling point and tend to bend up to this point during the drilling process. The result of imbalanced heavy weight collars and the bending of the overall downhole assembly produces a flywheel effect with an imbalance therein that may easily cause the drill bit to whirl, vibrate, and/or lose contact with the wellbore face in the desired drilling direction. The oil and gas drilling industry has long sought and continues to seek solutions to the above problems.